Stripe, a US fintech firm founded by two Irish brothers, has raised $150 million (£121 million) in a funding round that values the company at over $9 billion (£7 billion).

The investment round, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was led by CapitalG and General Catalyst, and also included participation from existing investors including Sequoia Capital. Facebook investor Peter Thiel and Tesla founder Elon Musk have also invested in Stripe in previous rounds.

Founded in 2011, Stripe's payments platform has become increasingly popular with startups, with businesses like Deliveroo and Kickstarter using the service. But large companies are also moving over to Stripe. In the past year, companies including SAP, Adidas, Slack, Medium, the Daily Mail, and both presidential campaigns have become Stripe customers.

The round makes Stripe ,which has users in 110 countries, one of biggest new technology companies in the US and values the business at $4 billion (£3 billion) higher than its most recent valuation, which was $5 billion (£4 billion) in the summer of 2015.

A source close to the company, whose software allows businesses to accept and track digital payments, said Stripe intends to use the money to build more products, invest in or acquire other companies, and expand into new markets. It also intends to expand the platform into areas such as company incorporation and fraud prevention.

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